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“Fool!” shouted the ego clone as he flew after the fleeing Autobot, firing a barrage of blasts. When the agent tried to call for help, he laughed at the attempt while keeping up his attack, “Mwahhaha! Puny Autobot, do you think you can warn your bosses against the likes of me?”
Meanwhile, left behind on the surface of the moon they had crashed on, the cowardly clone stammered, “N-no wait! Don’t leave me alone out here! I’m terrified of space!” Even if sitting here on the (relatively) safe moon they had crashed on was better than running towards some dangerous enemy, it wasn’t better by much. Not to mention the stasis cuffs still keeping his frame frozen.
He laid face down in the yellowish dirt where they had landed, trying to control his steadily panicking vents as his processor fought over which of the many things happening to him were the most terrifying at the moment. He was by himself in space, he had gotten beat up, the only person he slightly knew was gone, he was still trapped in stasis cuffs, he had failed at the assassination and Starscream would probably be mad at him, this weird glue could potentially be toxic, one after another he thought of something to be scared of, and his armor would have been trembling if it could the longer he sat by himself on the lonely rocky surface.
He hadn’t sat for very long -- though it felt like an eternity of being torn by terror and trapped-- before the blue clone showed up again, looking customarily proud of himself as he flew back in.
“Oh, sparks, y-you’re back,” commented the coward, now not sure if it was a good or a bad thing for the other to be back and ultimately just feeling scared either way. If he was here he might yell at the coward, but if he wasn’t here then the coward was left all by himself in the middle of nowhere.
“The cowardly Autobot fled in terror from the sight of my power!” proclaimed the ego clone, his hands perched triumphantly on his hips as he hovered down to land beside the coward. As he touched ground, he looked down at the other clone disdainfully. “Still trapped in stasis cuffs, how pathetic. You truly are an inferior clone -- not even close to my skill.”
“I-i-i,” stammered the coward, not daring to defend himself.
Shaking his head with a scoff, the egoist just shrugged confidently before turning around and taking a few steps away from the frozen coward.
“W-wait where are you going?!” squeaked out the purple and black Seeker, deciding all at once that being with the other clone definitely was the lesser of many evils and being by himself was a horrible idea. “Don’t leave me here! I hate stasis lock!” he begged.
The egoist paused and gave him a considering look, and the coward tried to compose himself to look at least a little bit more useful. Humming to himself thoughtfully, the blue Seeker then determined, “Well, an excellent strategist like myself wouldn’t dare to leave behind a potential asset, even one as unimpressive as you.” Raising his rays, he took a shot between the coward’s hands, making the black Seeker yelp in fright. “You’ve been freed by my masterful fire power,” said the egoist impatiently when the other Seeker didn’t rise. “So get up already.”
The scared Seeker scrambled up as quickly as he could, his plating trembling with the fear of ticking off the other clone so much he abandoned him again. “W-where are we going?” he dared to ask.
“I have to get back to my home base. The others will be hopeless without my flawless leadership.”
“B-back to Earth?” balked the coward, “But it’s so far, we’ll never make it, we’ll get lost in space and no one will find us,” he bemoaned.
“Pssh,” dismissed the confident clone dismissively, “Please, my survival and navigation skills are unmatched!” With that, the blue clone transformed and started to fly off, leaving the coward to stare at his departure with wide optics.
“W-wait for me!” yelped the black Seeker, transforming as well to follow.
They flew for a long while, the coward not daring to say anything even as his anxiety climbed at not knowing where they were going, or what the ego clone was planning to do. He was just nervously considering a low fuel warning in his HUD when the blue Seeker suddenly banked left, veering towards a gray speck in the distance that grew into a low set building bustling with activity. The coward’s engines stuttered at the sight of so many strangers (many of them not even mechs and instead some variety of weird organics), but the egoist didn’t so much as slow, and he was quickly boosting to catch back up again rather than deal with all of this unknown all by himself.
Without hesitation, the egotistical Seeker transformed and landed confidently at an entrance to the station. A few heads turned to look at his arrival but overall business as usual carried on in the room. The fearful clone followed, curling up on himself against the few stares that were there, though to him it felt like the whole diner was looking at them. The ego clone marched through aisles of tables with a prideful stride, gaze sweeping back and forth to regard all of the other patrons haughtily.
The fearless leader stomped up to a table of mechs, the more familiar sight almost inclining the coward to calm down until it was immediately countered by the fact they were still strangers. The group looked up disdainfully from the fuel they had been consuming, and the black Seeker immediately ducked to hide behind the ego clone as well as he could, wishing he had a way to shrink and stop drawing so much attention from the room. In contrast, the egoist planted a hand on the table as he announced to the small crowd, “You’re all very lucky, you get to provide me with fuel today.”
The strangers’ glares darkened, and a femme at the head of the table looked at him, unimpressed, “You Decepticons may think you run the galaxy, but this is a neutral spaceport. We’ve dealt with your kind causing trouble before, so I’d suggest you and your buddy there leave.”
The coward flinched at being called out while the egoist simply scoffed. “Please, the Decepticons wish that they had half of MY power.” He reached out to grab one of the few wedged containers of fuel on the table, immediately met with several blasters aimed at his face.
“We warned ya,” spoke the lead femme again, “Leave, now.”
The Seeker did not, only squaring his shoulders and flaring his wings challengingly, “As if a warrior of my caliber could lose to you,” he jeered, grabbing onto the fuel and dragging it across the table.
“Get him, mechs!” declared the leader of the group of strangers, and every mech at the table rose to their feet and jumped the blue Seeker at once. He threw off the first couple with ease, being nearly double their height, then sprang back to have room to aim his null rays.
“Oh, good, a chance to show off my superior fire power!” He pointed straight at the lead femme, triggering the charge on his weapons, only for them to make a strained sound and immediately fizzle. He shook his arm frustratedly, then suddenly remembered that he was low on fuel -- too low for his weapons to get a charge. “Guess you’ll just have to see my immaculately sharpened claws instead,” he taunted, preparing for the hoard of neutrals that continued to rush at him.
Meanwhile, the coward had backed away as quietly as he could, watching with wide optics as the ego clone got swarmed. He startled as one of the rogues started to veer towards him, the stranger’s blaster glowing with a shot that he had to quickly dodge. “Ah!” he shrieked as he ducked under the laserfire, his hands flying up to protect his face as his armor shook, “Please, no! I dent easily!” he begged.
His attacker huffed a scoffing laugh, firing at him another time which he now had to fall to the floor to avoid. “Coward,” mocked the assailant caustically, before turning to rejoin the rest of his friends, leaving the shaking Seeker behind. The frightened jet didn’t dare move, covering his optics so he could only hear the way the battle was going (he half considered turning down his audials as well, but then worriedly considered that if he had no idea what was happening he would probably get hurt). After a long suspended moment of terror, the noises changed to a clanging shuffle, and he heard a shouted, “And stay out!” before he felt it was safe to look again.
“Meep!” he squeaked in fear when he uncovered his optics to see the terrifying femme glaring down at him, her expression stern.
“We threw your friend out of here,” she informed him harshly. The coward stared up at the femme framed by her team of mechs, his armor starting to rattle again. The angry glare in the femme’s optics softened ever so slightly as she held her gun against her hip, the blaster end now pointed away from the fearful clone, “You didn’t actually do anything, so we’ll give you one chance to get yourself out of here free.”
It took a second for the statement to work through the terrified fog of his processor and for him to realize he was being granted mercy. Wings as flat against his back as they could be he managed a shaky bow against the floor as he stuttered out, “Th-th-thank you!” then rose to his feet and fled the building.
He met back up with the ego clone, who was angrily dusting off his armor, periodically scowling at a dent he came across, “They think they can take fuel that is rightfully mine away from me? No one says no to me!” Before the coward could even attempt to get a word in he continued to rant, "Dismissed, rejected, PUBLICALLY HUMILIATED! I refuse to bear it!”
“Please don’t make us go in there again! I’ll get pulverized!” begged the coward, finally desperate enough to interject.
The egoist gave him an annoyed look from the side of his optics. “Of course you would,” he huffed, even as he gained a calculating look. “Well, I won’t have to defend your pathetically fragile frame from being damaged,” finger pointed proudly against the side of his helm, he declared smugly, “My genius processor has determined the superior way to get some fuel.”
“Oh, thank the Allspark,” sighed the coward in relief.
“I think your low RAM CPU meant to say thank me,” rebutted the egoist, scowling into the coward’s face as his hands fisted behind him.
“T-thank you!” corrected the coward shrilly, shrinking away from the looming other clone. Smirking in satisfaction, the egoist turned away again, ready to put his new masterful plan into action.
His new masterful plan involved sneaking around to the back of the neutral space station and rummaging for partially empty canisters of what looked like decent fuel until they had enough of a ration. While he swirled a 3/4ths full cube pridefully, the coward only looked at it warily. The ego clone downed the energon swiftly, and the coward cringed, fully expecting the worse. When nothing exploded or worse, he relaxed, and inched towards his fellow clone, watching as he drained the rest of his acquired fuel. The cowardly Seeker’s gaze darted between the now empty cube in the egoist’s hand and the dumpster it had come from.
“What? Want to look at my perfect frame but it’s too much for your optics?” posed the blue Seeker, noticing the other’s strange behavior. He broke the cube in his hand, and the coward wilted disappointedly.
“Uhhhmm, I just I um, I,”
“Spit it out already. By the Allspark you are pathetic!”
“I’m scared I’m gonna go into stasis lock. I’m so scared of stasis!”
“Then drink some fuel. I am such a genius.”
“But what if it’s dangerous?!”
“Of course it isn’t! I found this fuel, therefore it is perfect, just like all of my plans.”
“W-well…” at an intimidating look from the other clone, the coward relented, “Ok,” and fished out a couple of half empty energon-looking cubes from the same receptacle that the egoist had gotten his out of.
“Follow my flawless strategies and you’ll be fueled and make it back no problem.”
Concerning warnings abating now that he had some fuel in his system, the coward felt the slightest bit better about trusting that, and nodded frantically. The blue Seeker gave another victorious look, and walked away and transformed to leave the station.
They flew through the dark expanse of space for another long stretch. Cycles passed, though the coward’s internal chronometer was the only way he would be able to tell through the unchanging depths of space. The coward feared they were only flying further into being lost forever, but he didn’t dare voice his doubts to the egoist. The blue Seeker didn’t express any concern that they were going the wrong way, his nosecone pointed confidently ahead as they journeyed onward.
As suddenly as before, the egoist came to an abrupt pause, and the coward quickly transformed and reversed thrust to avoid crashing into the other Seeker.
"What's wrong?!” he worried, looking nervously around them.
The ego clone pointed at a random collection of asteroids, declaring, “That is where we will recharge.”
“There?” asked the coward.
The egoist scowled, retorting challengingly, “You question me?”
“O-of course not, never,” he denied vehemently, shaking his hands frantically in denial. He followed the other clone quietly as they landed onto the planetoid surface, though his armor still rattled with his nerves. He was sure the other clone noticed, but the blue Seeker didn’t comment. He didn’t know if he was relieved about that or not.
Even though he wasn’t thrilled about the location, he could admit his CPU could use a break. His processes were cluttered from his constant panicked imaginings and half-activated self-preservation protocols that he had been running frequently since his last recharge before the battle. It had all built up, and despite it all he slipped into recharge fairly quickly.
When he onlined again, he immediately was hit by a spike of panic when the other clone was nowhere to be seen. “Not again!” he complained. Not only was he alone in a strange place, but his fuel percentages were down to less than a quarter. Without the other clone he would be useless at finding fuel for himself, and he would surely slip into stasis or even deactivate!
He felt a swell of relief when he saw a familiar blue jet coming in for a landing, though it immediately shriveled when the other clone transformed and he saw the enraged expression on the Seeker’s face.
“Is everything ok?” he asked before he could think better of it.
The blue Seeker gave a stormy scowl, retorting loudly, “Of course it is, why wouldn’t it be?!”
“U-um, n-no reason!”
Giving a wordless huff, the ego clone stomped to a patch of ground and laid down, clutching his knees to his chest. The coward looked between him and the horizon in confusion.
“Aren’t…don’t we have to go?”
The ego clone didn’t shift his posture, instead declaring pompously into his knees, “I have magnanimously decided that we’re resting for this cycle.” He didn’t look magnanimous so much as unwell, the coward worried to himself. But he was pretty sure he’d rather be here where nothing would probably happen rather than out in space again, so he quietly laid back down. He looked over the fuel gauge in his vision. It wasn’t any better, but hopefully with some time doing nothing it wouldn’t drop too far.
The coward only got twitchier as his levels dropped to the teens while they laid on the asteroid surface. Sitting up and worrying his hands for a moment, he asked the curled up form of the other clone, “Did you, ah, find any fuel?”
The blue Seeker didn’t shift his position as he gave an annoyed grunt in reply. The coward’s wings flickered anxiously as he debated whether he would have to work up more of his scant amount of courage to ask again. He was thankfully spared from having to make the decision when the ego clone actually replied, “There’s some over that way,” he informed vaguely, pointing a lax finger up and to the left, “Go get it yourself. I need beauty rest.”
Though his metaphorical spark dropped at the idea of flying off into the unknown by himself, another glance at his low energon levels was equally terrifying. With a whimper and a shudder, he cast a begging expression at his fellow clone, but he didn’t look up from his place on the ground. Giving a shaky in-vent, he whined, “Oohh,” and psyched himself up enough to stand and take off in the general direction the ego clone had pointed.
Sure enough, he came across a disheveled space station, though he looked over the grime and corrosion of the building in apprehension. The filling station was a single building that was just barely taller than himself in root mode. It was a blessing and a curse that it seemed fairly abandoned, making it easy for him to clumsily sneak around to the back of it and stare at barrels of something that faintly glowed. His hand reached to grab one, but he paused as his thoughts spiralled. How did he know this was the right fuel? The directions had been so vague, what if he wasn’t even in the right place? Were those barrels even fuel? How could he know it was safe to drink when he didn’t know what it was? Even with his energon levels nagging at him, he couldn’t bring himself to consume the unknown fuel, and with a defeated sigh he turned around and retreated back.
His embarrassingly empty-handed return at least was not met with any commentary, since his fellow clone’s optics were darkened with recharge where he laid unmoved. The coward settled down a ways away from him, hoping worriedly that as long as he didn’t move too much his fuel levels wouldn’t fall too badly. He resigned that he would just have to take what he saw the ego clone find in the future, so that way he would know it was safe. In the meantime he just laid still and waited until, with as little warning or information as he had given when they stopped, the ego clone got up and casually rolled his shoulders, and took to the sky again.
This experience set the pattern for the rest of their journey. They would fly through the dark expanse of space until their fuel went low, then the coward would mooch off of whatever fuel the ego clone had managed to scrape and scavenge at any spaceport, waypoint, random pitstop, or even civilian home they came across. It would have been an unbearable pace, except for the occasional time they would spend resting. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for why it happened. Sometimes, the ego clone just wouldn’t leave for a few cycles, and the coward would wordlessly accept it.
It was another cycle of flying, and for whatever reason the nervous Seeker had woken out of recharge more on edge than even usual. His scanners flickered over every distant star, nebula, and celestial body around them. They had been going the same general direction for a while, and something felt wrong, sending his defense protocols prickling. After more scanning over his surroundings, he could swear that a distant body was different -- it was brighter, bigger. With a nervous check of the flight path of the blue jet in front of him he realized with unease they were heading right towards it.
“H-hey,” he stammered, “That looks pretty dangerous…!” The other Seeker gave no indication he had heard it, and their path did not change. He gave a worried whine as the looming strange orb in front of them glowed brighter ominously, and shrieked shrilly when something small tinked against the side of his fuselage.
“Will you relax!” snapped the ego clone, “It’s just--” Whatever he was going to criticize was cut short when he had to dodge a helm-sized rock that came barrelling towards his cockpit glass. Before either Seeker knew it, they were having to dodge and weave through space debris that hurtled around them. The coward's screams came consistently as he panickedly navigated the sudden storm, drifting further and further from the other clone. All he could see around him were fast, dangerous rocks. He would have tried shooting them if his energon levels had been better. Unless the situation were really desperate, he would have to stick to reliably dodging the debris around him.
The ego clone transformed as he navigated out of danger, swiping his hands pridefully at his expert flying. He looked back over his shoulder to give the showering rocks a gloating glare, and realized he could hear the cowardly clone shrieking and sniveling from way out here. He shook his head before shrugging and jetting a few pulses onwards.
“AHH! HELP! AHHH, SPARKS, AHHH! WHY WON’T IT STOP ALREADY?!”
The blue Seeker’s thrusters slowed, then stopped, and now the only thing carrying him away from the other clone was his drifting momentum. He turned around to fully look back at the cluster of asteroids, and, focusing, he could make out a frantically twisting and turning jet in the middle of the mess. A tightening pain clamped over something in his chassis while he stared. He looked to the dark, empty expanses to his left and right, and then reignited his thrusters and flew back into the storm.
The coward clone was almost getting too worn out from frantic constant dodging to be scared anymore. But only almost. Fear still thrummed through him as the onslaught seemed to only thicken, it was just that his frame was getting too weary to keep up with it. Even without touching his null rays his evasive maneuvers were using up fuel levels that had been low to start. His thrusters stalled a moment, and he could only stare as his lagging processor sluggishly registered a gigantic asteroid far larger than himself coming towards him. This wasn’t how he had wanted to deactivate. Well, he hadn’t wanted to deactivate at all, even if he saw the possibility of it all the time.
Something made impact, but it had slammed into him from the side, rather than his front. “Fly, you fool!” rang a voice loudly in his audial, and he realized in astonishment that the thing was the other clone pushing him out of the way. His wings waggled as he regained his bearings and the ego clone pulled away from him. Despite being in vehicle mode, his incredulity must have shown through, because the blue Seeker was waving his hand in a gesture to follow, explaining, “Just follow me and my superior sense of direction will get you out of here.” His engines shuddered, but he maneuvered around to face towards the other clone. The egoist transformed, and together, the coward sticking close behind his thrusters, the two jets made it free of the asteroid field.
The nervous clone transformed with a relieved groan, his hands planted on his knees as he leaned over in exhaustion. “Can we never do that again, please?” he whined.
The ego clone didn’t answer immediately, and the coward tilted his head to give the other Seeker a curious glance. The prideful jet’s optics were narrowed as he looked over the coward, and the purple Seeker wilted as he expected criticism over his wimpiness. Instead the other just huffed and replied, “We won’t have to as long as I’m here.” A tentative grin spread on the coward’s faceplates, and he let out a shaky laugh.
The next time they stopped to recharge, the coward onlined to the ego clone holding out a clear spherical container out to him. “Here,” he said in offering, pushing the strange object closer. Resetting his optics, the cowardly Seeker’s hands accepted it automatically, though he made no immediate move to consume the presumed fuel. “You know it’s safe because I found it,” bragged the ego clone, but there was an undercurrent of assurance there that the coward didn’t think had been before. With a nervous hum of agreement, the black and purple Seeker played with the container in his hands, searching for the way to open the unfamiliar container. The ego clone settled next to him with a relieved huff, and the coward noticed him prick a hole into his own fuel with a claw and quickly copied him. The Seekers sat side by side as they refuelled, the prideful clone recounting his exploits in discovering this particular find and the coward content to just listen.
When they took off once again to continue on their journey, rather than stay directly in front of the purple jet as he flew, the blue Seeker had fallen back to fly beside him. Still in the lead, but no longer several lengths ahead. Having the bolder clone closer by did wonders for the coward’s nervous circuits.
But even with this newfound support, as the cycles dragged on, the worried Seeker began to despair. From the time he onlined and they made another leg of their journey, throughout their entire flight, all he could think about was how endless space seemed. Cycle after cycle, and there was no indication they were any closer to their goal. By the time they landed on yet another random bit of space debris his vents were shuddering and heaving as he held his helm in a shaking hand.
“We’re never making it back home!” he wailed, his claws tightening their grip. He counted back the cycles they had been journeying, his vents hitching in panic as the number climbed. “It’s impossible! Space is so big! We’re going to be lost forever!” He gave a shuttering keen, his other hand rising to join his first on his helm as he sank to a crouch on the ground. “We’re doomed, doomed, DOOMED!”
“We are not lost and we are not doomed! Calm down!” retorted his fellow clone, but the coward could hear the uncharacteristic flustered tone in his voice, and his venting hitched again.
“This is it. This is our activations!” He gave a hysterical laugh, his wings quivering. “Fly through the fragging black, endless, space until we go empty then stasis lock and deactivate or offline from sketchy poisoned fuel! Might as well turn ourselves in to the Autobots!”
Though his optics were locked on the ground beneath him, he could hear the other clone’s armor flare in offense, “I won't have any of those things happen!” protested the egoist.
“That’s great for you!” interjected the coward shrilly, “I’m helpless!”
He could hear the ego clone’s posture shift, but his gaze was too rooted to the spot in his panic to look and see what the exact reaction had been. A gentle touch landed on his wing, as the ego clone tried to still his trembling with a calming hand. Finally he felt he could look away from the floor, ripping his gaze away to meet that of the other Seeker. His optics looked over him, glowing softly. “I will get us back to Earth,” he declared evenly, every word delivered with absolute certainty. “My wits and expert leadership will stave off any and all threats of deactivation. You could not be in better servos.” His tone was gloating, not a trace of doubt in his voice or posture. The coward found it almost too easy to believe him, and as the blue Seeker’s supporting hand moved from his wing to his shoulder his shaking had nearly ceased. The hand didn’t move as he took one more deep in-vent to cool his over-worked processor. Finally his trembling stilled, and he tried to rise, only to land back down with a shaky “oof” and throwing off the ego clone’s hand. Panicking like that had taken more out of him than he thought, and he took a moment to sit and rest. The other Seeker stared down at him.
“S-sorry, I’ll move,” he apologized weakly, embarrassed under the other’s scrutiny.
“I said we were recharging here, didn’t I?” rebutted the egoist easily, moving to sit and settle beside the coward.
“Oh, right,” sighed the nervous Seeker in relief, his posture slumping gratefully.
He wasn’t full on panicking anymore when they next flew, but he was still tentative. Space was still big, and he had no idea where Earth’s moon was in it. His prideful counterpart, of course, was as unbothered as ever, and kept on course as confidently as before. “See those stars? My immaculate wayfinding says that we’re getting close.” He didn’t see whatever stars the other was talking about, they all just looked like dots to him, but he was willing to accept whatever proved that they weren’t completely lost.
He startled when a crackling sound came from his helm, his flight swerving. He worried for a moment that there was something wrong with him. “That was strange,” commented the jet ahead of him and he was relieved that it wasn’t just him who had had…whatever that was just happen to him. Of course, it was still a weird thing that happened so that didn’t really make it much better.
“Hey…ou ….ead this?” a voice trickled into his helm, and he panicked again.
“Ah! Get out of my helm!” he shouted, wings bucking as if he could shake off the intruding voice.
“It’s just comms!” shot back the ego clone tersely, and the coward stopped dead in his shaky flight.
“Oh,” he muttered embarrassedly.
“Coward, ego, can you hear me?” came the voice again, much clearer now. With shock, he recognized the sound of the femme clone. (Hard to forget what she sounded like, considering how terrifying she was every time she spoke.) While he shied away from the aggressive femme, the ego clone replied.
“Well, well, look who’s back! Already begging for my leadership!”
“What? Whatever, shut up, I don’t have endless time for this call. Here’s our coordinates. You know how to read them?”
“You dare insult my intelligence?!”
“I’m taking that as a yes. See you. Or I won’t. Whatever.”
“Wha--” the black Seeker tried to ask, but as unexpectedly as it had started the connection ended and his comm hissed emptiness at him.
“It’s just as I said, we’re close. As if there was any doubt!” preened the ego clone, his thrusters boosting in a pleased manner.
Cautiously, concerned about viruses the coward took a peek at the coordinates that he had gotten. With a relief that poured through all his lines he could see that they were coming very near to the location (at least, as the Seeker flew). In front of him, the blue Seeker’s thrusters primed as he declared, “I’ll get us home in no time.” When he boosted ahead, the coward followed, having little doubt that he would.